Oct 23, 2005

Olympus E-500 | Technical Review

Olympus recently introduced their new EVOLT E-500 digital SLR. The Olympus EVOLT E-500 is a full-featured, 8-megapixel digital SLR camera that was designed to be used easily by photographers of any skill level. The EVOLT E-500 is their third camera in their Four-thirds system, this camera could be their finest offering yet. Looks lhe E-500 has many of the same features as the E-300 but it has as more traditional (YAY!) body, a larger LCD display, new noise reduction software, and much more. The E-500 features an eight megapixel Kodak 4/3 Type CCD sensor.

"This may be the most underestimated feature of the E-System. One of the filters just in front of the sensor (probably the low-pass one) serves also as a dust barrier with the CCD sealed behind it; when the camera is turned on, that filter vibrates for one second or so at a near-ultrasonic frequency of 25 kHz; the dust particles are shaken off the sensor, and stick to an adhesive surface at the bottom of the mirror chamber. This surface has to be replaced by a service center every three years or so, according to Olympus, but this depends on how often and in how clean environment you change lenses.

This is how this works in theory, and when I started using E-System cameras, sharing this feature, I had some doubts how effective the system may be. After a year with the E-300 I can say that it really seems to work: my monthly check shows no traces of sensor dust, and I am changing lenses quite a lot.

Dust is a major issue in interchangeable-lens SLRs; every time you remove the lens, some particles may settle on the sensor (more exactly: a filter in front of it, serving also as a dust barrier), giving you dark specks in subsequently taken pictures. This is best visible in shots of smooth, uniform areas, like a blue, clear sky. The specks will be somewhat fuzzy, as the dust particles are not directly in front of the sensor but somewhat ahead of it; still, the effect is quite clear.

There is a booming, home-grown industry of tools for removing the dust from the front of the sensor: brushes, swabs, pads, tissues, liquids, and prayer beads; sometimes just repackaged or re-branded cosmetic accessories sold at ten times original price; there are also whole schools supporting one or another approach to performing this operation. I'm glad I don't have to do it."

If you're thinking about buying this digital SLR, the article is definitely worth a read.